Designing Natural: The Secrets of Microsoft's Natural User Interfaces

Daniel's book, Brave NUI World, will be available at sale price of CA $25 (tax included). One lucky attendee will win a free copy!

Abstract:Advanced sensing capabilities, such as those offered by Microsoft's Surface and Kinect, have the potential to transform HCI. The goal is to create a 'Natural User Interface', one in which the user's capabilities and needs are reflected to the point that they feel 'like a natural' when working with these technologies. In this talk, Daniel will present the framework which guided the design of the user interfaces of several of Microsoft's exciting current and upcoming products. He will also finally, once and for all, present the concrete definition of 'NUI' which came from these design efforts, and which has been badly misunderstood by many seeking to mimic them. The clear directive that 'Natural' is a design goal, and not a design methodology or metaphor, forms the basis for these efforts, and can serve as a guiding light for those seeking to build truly compelling, Natural user interfaces.

Daniel is the co-author of Brave NUI World | Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture, the first practical book for the design of touch and gesture interfaces. He has also published dozens of other works as invited book chapters and papers in leading international publications and conferences, and is an author of over two dozen patents and pending patent applications.